Using virtual reality (VR) in videos can provide an interactive video for a user. The interactive video can present to a user one or more choices that could dictate the flow of the video. The VR video can generate a visual cue that is displayed on one or more objects in the VR video. A renderer at the client can render different visual effects to present the one or more choices to the user. The user can then select one of the one or more choices. Depending on the choice, the video may proceed in different storylines.
A visual effect may be encoded in a separate video. During the VR video playback, the client may also download the information for the visual effect while downloading the VR video. The download of the additional information for the visual effect requires more bandwidth. Also, the renderer renders the VR video in addition to creating the visual effect, which requires additional computing resources.
A VR video uses more bandwidth than a traditional video because of the immersive experience provided by the VR video. Adding the presentation of the visual effect into the VR video further increases the amount of bandwidth used. When rendering the visual effect at runtime, the increase in bandwidth needed may cause problems with displaying the VR video. For example, the video may experience some jitter or rebuffering, which causes an interruption of the display of the video. Also, when the renderer renders the visual effect in addition to the VR video, the renderer may experience delays in rendering both the VR video and the visual effect.